EA wants Battlefield 5 players to stop dying so quickly

The first Tides of War update won't make direct changes to TTK, but EA plans to begin experimenting with it soon.

Battlefield 5's Time to Kill [TTK] and Time to Die [TTD] are "the hottest topic(s) being discussed" by players right now, Electronic Arts said in a recent Reddit post looking at the upcoming Tides of War Chapter 1: Overture, acknowledging that some players are growing frustrated because they're dying too often and too quickly. Unfortunately for those players, the update won't make any direct changes to either, but EA said it's planning to begin experimenting with it soon.

"The TTD experience is one of our high priorities right now and there are a lot of important and complex pieces that are being investigated to identify any issues in that area, including netcode," core gameplay designer Florian Le Bihan said. "We are also expanding the scope of our investigation and improvements to other components that are directly related to the player experience when it comes to getting shot, receiving damage, etc."

"Another important piece is that we want to closely look at how we can improve consistency of the gameplay across all platforms, but also consider how we can ensure that latency does not reduce the quality of that experience for all our players around the world."

Experiments with TTK adjustments will begin soon, he said, although it sounds like EA is still nailing down exactly how it will be handled. The current idea is to roll out the changes globally, and then add a new playlist using the current TTK settings so players can compare the two directly, but that "may change as we're still investigating how to approach," Le Bihan said.

As for what is coming in Overture, the Revive mechanic is being adjusted to improve the "experience" (but not the speed), and a number of weapon balance changes are being made, particularly Medic weapons: SMGs will have their five-hit kill range extended, and their sustained fire accuracy will be improved. Spectator Mode is getting two new features, a "Look At Player" free camera option that automatically rotates the camera to look at the selected player, and "Smooth Rotation," which, surprise, smooths the camera rotation when you're moving it with your mouse.

The ability to drag downed teammates will not be added in this update, however, nor will there be any improvements in syncing loadouts across factions, although EA is working on it.

"Please note that this is not fully inclusive of all updates being implemented. This is just a taste of what to expect," EA wrote. "We will be releasing the full update notes prior to the update being released which will dive into all of the changes/improvements introduced."

Battlefield 5 Tides of War Chapter 1: Overture is set to come out on December 4.

Andy covers the day-to-day happenings in the big, wide world of PC gaming—the stuff we call "news." In his off hours, he wishes he had time to play the 80-hour RPGs and immersive sims he used to love so much.